Corkk in a Bottle
by Corkk the Forgetful Scribe
Summary: A group of young novices struggle to find their place in the world after finishing their training at the Novice Academy. Read if you want and Review if you Read. fourth chapter is up, as well as the third. Watch some blossoming romance XD
1. Intro to the Crew, part 1

_Chapter one: One Sunny Morning, Before…_

Finally!

The young novice leaped out of bed. This was the day that he had been striving towards for 10 hard years. Ever since he had joined the Novice Academy on his ninth birthday, he had been training for this test.

Corkk Ramirez was finally old enough to take his exit level test. This test consisted of a 2 week survival test, followed by a job application test. If he passed this test, he would finally realize his lifelong dream, he would receive his adventurer's license.

With that, he would be deemed strong enough to join the rest of the world in the profession of his choice.

He strapped on his armor and buckled on his guard. He grabbed his spear, the closest of his weapons and head out to find a sparring partner. Right before he left he woke Friiy. The lazy mage hopeful would sleep through apocalypse if it wasn't for Corkk.

Not bothering to wait for anyone else, he walked out towards the commons, a field that held the archery range, the Peco-Peco course and the sparring dummies, many of which were missing their heads because of a blow from either Corkk or another of the stronger students.

As was the case every other morning, the only person out there besides Corkk was his best friend Colin. They had met in their second year, when Corkk had accidentally thrown his tray at the other during a food fight. After the initial anger about being hit with a hard wooden tray they had settled their dispute and soon became tight friends.

Colin was practicing his archery like always, and was busy pinning a chon-chon to a tree by putting arrows through each wing. When it came to archery no student could rival Colin. In his first year, he could shoot and arrow through the center of a standard target at 100 yards. He only got better with his practice, and now was able to shoot an arrow close enough to someone that he could nock off their cap without hitting them.

But Colin would provide no challenge to Corkk in a close in fight. Cork was the strongest swordsman hopeful in the camp. Whether it be spear, axe, mace, or sword, he could use it better than anyone else in the whole camp save the instructors.

With the lack of any worthy partners, Corkk was forced to goad some other 10th years into fighting with him. All five tried to attack him at once but were met with the staff end of his spear. He was like a whirling dervish spinning around delivering blows to all sides. He disarmed one opponent then another, and by the end of the sparring session, he had liberated a mace, an axe, a two handed sword, and two knives. He had been hit once during the whole session. When he had turned his back to defend against an oncoming blow from one of the opponents, he had received a sound smack in the arm by the mace wielding one.

Content with his work out, Corkk found himself strolling along toward the mess hall on the other side of the Academy. Colin who had become bored and freed the chon-chon was right behind him. They walked in silence for a moment listening to a fight that had broken out in the Orc Tribe dormitory. When they had been fifth years they had lit that same dormitory on fire when they asked Friiy to light the fireplace. They had gotten in so much trouble that they had to do latrine duty for four months. They had gotten lucky this year, because the new Minotaur Squadron dorm was finally built and was out of the way of the younger, more obnoxious students. They had been placed in the Minotaur dorm after they had been kicked out of the Kobold Horde for stealing their counselor's bed.

When they finally reached the Mess hall, the old Scholar that was the headmaster of the academy was preparing to give the morning announcements. They hurried to their table as the headmaster discussed the penalty for exploding the latrines (also Friiy and Corkk's fault) and posted a reward for the student that had captured the history teacher in a snare trap (Colin, Friiy, and Corkk's fault).

Finally he got to the part that every tenth year was waiting for, the pairings. Each tenth year was to be pared with a partner for the survival exam, and if one partner died, they both failed. He began his speech, which was new every year.

"Today the academy is very proud. Our hardworking Minotaur Squadron," hisses were heard from the Kobold Horde's table across the room) "and our brave Kobold Horde," Boo's were heard from the other Minotaurs "are finally ready to take the exit level exams!" Proclaimed the headmaster.

"Now, I know that you are all anxious, and ready to know who your partner is, but this year is going to be different. We have invited some esteemed guests to join us in our most important of tests," he continued.

"Please help me welcome the lovely young women from the Western Academy."

_End of Chapter One._


	2. Intro to the Crew, Part 2

_Chapter 2: Introducing the Crew, Part 2._

"What!" was the first thing that came to the lips of the some hundred 10th years sitting in the hall. This had never been heard of in the hundreds of years that the two academies had been separated. The western academy in Geffen was the branch of the academy that housed the young women who hoped to explore the world as adventurers.

For as long as everybody had known, the two academies had been completely separate. Students of the two academies where forbidden to contact each other, and the western academy had its own exit level exam, something to do with finding something under the city of Geffen.

As soon as the noise died down, the head master waved his hands, and the door opened. In through the entrance stepped a shady mysterious lady. This new arrival seemed to be searching for something, maybe a certain teacher, but judging by her frown, she never found whatever it was. Corkk blinked, and she was next to the head master.

"What the Hell! Her speed was insane!" he thought, "If all of the women of the West are that fast, I might find a worthy opponent among them."

A peculiar noise made everyone turn their attention towards the doors again. In, past the great stone Titans that guarded the academy, and between the wooden doors, marched a line of girls. A better description might have been women, for none of them was below 17 years old. Each carried with them a weapon or two, and a pack, except the first two. The first two, the heads of the line, where holding pikes with flags fastened to the ends. One flag bore the griffon and crossed swords that signified the kingdom of Rune-Midgard. The second flag though held a Lotus, with a knife and a flaming staff. The second flag they could only assume was the flag of the west academy.

Once the Women where seated at the seats that had been left open for them (the first years where kept in their classes), the Head master began speaking again.

"As was previously mentioned, we have offered to host the exams for both academies, as a way to break the century long barrier that was erected by my predecessors. Today we have prepared a feast, feel free to mingle with the women, friendship now may just signal friendship later. Now, I seem to hear the stomach of one of our most prized students protesting to my long speech," Corkk blushed and looked away, his stomach had been rumbling for the past few minutes and he was sitting just feet away from the professor, "so lets begin the feast!".

Gasps of surprise were heard from the girls as the waiters dropped from the ceiling with large silver platters. The boys were used to this event, the Kitchen was directly above the Great hall, and this was the most efficient way to deliver the food, and what food there was! Some plates were heaped with tropical fruits, while meats where mounded on other platters. Giant bowls were lowered to each table, some containing salads while others held exquisite deserts. At intervals along each of the tables, there were pitchers of milk, juices, and, at the tenth year's tables, ale. Three waiters delivered a roast hog to each table, holding it between them as they were lowered to the table.

Over all, the feast left most inhabitants of the academy stuffed. Corkk, who had never had much of an appetite, had himself finished four platefuls by the time he was done. He had also drained several tankards of ale.

He looked over at Friiy; he was pathetic, reeling drunk after two glasses. He wouldn't be surprised if the lazy mage to be could get drunk off just the sight of the ale.

Colin next to him had finished his twelfth plate. "He may be small," thought Corkk, "but he certainly has a fast metabolism."

A few of the boys had gathered enough courage to saunter up to the girls table, and currently the table was giggling as a red faced 9th year was attempting to introduce himself to one of the flag bearers.

What really caught Corkk's attention was the trio of girls sitting in the corner. The tallest one was still shorter than him, and had long blonde hair, she kept blushing every time she looked over at him, but Corkk didn't know what that meant since he had been cut off from most of the opposite sex for the past10 years. The one to her right had short red hair and seemed to glow with utter selflessness, "bah," he thought she was definitely going to end up as an acolyte. The last one was short with medium-length curly hair she seemed to be doing all the talking and frequently burst into fits of seemingly uncontrollable giggles. They thought that Corkk hadn't notice them looking at him, and he decided that he would give them the idea that that was true. So he casually looked around the room and talked to Colin and Friiy, all the while keeping the three in his sights.

"What strange people," he thought after the blonde girl blushed for what seemed to be the millionth time. They didn't seem to be doing anything other than talking and blushing.

He was snapped back into his senses when the headmaster stood up.

"You may all return to your dorms now, except for you three," he said as he pointed to Corkk, Friiy, and Colin.

A feeling of dread spread through Corkk. Had they finally figured out who had blown up all the chickens?

"We are having some problems on our campus…" started the headmaster when they where the only ones left in the hall.

"Here it comes," thought Corkk, "we've finally been caught after 10 years of pranks and practical jokes."

"There seems to be a lack of space in our campus for the new arrivals," continued the old scholar, and I need you to escort three young women to the spare cottage near your dorm on the outskirts of camp."

All three of the students breathed a sigh of relief, since all of them thought that they were gonna be caught.

"The girls are waiting outside of the door…" he explained, "and remember, show them the best hospitality you can muster, we want to make a good impression on these women so that they will come again next year."

The boys trudged outside, relieved to be off the hook, but mad because they would have to listen to some giggling ditzy girls all the way across campus. Surprisingly for Corkk, and the girls they where escorting, they where the same ones who had been eyeing him from the corner earlier. As they all blushed at once, he tried to keep his calm and act like nothing had happened. Colin and Friiy where obviously confused, and would definitely force an explanation out of him later.

"Hello ladies…" he said in a failed attempt to sound smooth, "are you the ones that we will be escorting to the guest cabins?"

There faces turned dark, and Corkk knew he had said something wrong.

"Lets get this straightened out," exclaimed the tall blonde one her voice edged with bitterness, "first of all, whatever you have heard of us is most likely wrong, and second we don't need an escort, we need a guide, we are not some group of giggling second years, we are the best of the academy!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," he answered.

"Typical," she glared at him, "men, humph! They say something offensive, and then try to cover it up with apologies."

"What's that supposed to mean?" blurted Colin.

"Simple, it means that if you think something is going to be offensive, then don't say it!" she was now yelling.

Corkk was extremely confused at the seemingly unprovoked change of moods (Oh to be that innocent again!) when he had seen them first, they had been smiling, but now the blonde one was seemingly furious, and the other two where looking away.

Friiy stepped forward, "this is going to get us no where, and do you guys and girls have to argue about such a simple thing?"

"Depends," shot Corkk, "is madam PMS over here going to swallow her pride and say sorry for insulting mankind?"

"YOU WANNA SEE PMS? CAUSE I CAN SHOW YOU PMS!" she shrieked incredulously.

Corkk could tell that if he said one more thing, that it would come to blows, but he was perfectly ok with that. He was about to make a rude retort, when Friiy and Colin grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away. He could tell that the same thing was happening to the blonde girl, by her outraged screams.

"What the hell is wrong with you man?" yelled Friiy, you were about to kill that girl, and if you hadn't killed her, she would of killed you."

"Yeah, so? I could have taken her, didn't you hear what she said, and those remarks can't go without punishment!"

"You need to cool down, dude, why don't you stay in the background, lay low and try not to talk" commanded Colin in a calm tone.

With no other choices, and not wanting to piss off his two best friends, he acquiesced.

It seemed that the same answer had been reached on the other side too, because the blonde girl walked on the other side of the group for the rest of the walk, while Colin, Friiy, and the two other girls talked about their past experiences in their prospective academies. Both Corkk and the Blondie fumed for the whole walk, and said nothing as the others bid each other farewell at the door to their cabin. Corkk was completely silent for the walk home, and the rest of the night, as he prepared himself for the task of surviving 14 days in the wild.

As he was drifting to sleep, he felt a pang of regret, Blondie was, he had to admit, pretty good looking, and he didn't doubt that they could have been friends under different circumstances.

Finally, he drifted to sleep, his last thought was, "only 9 more hours till the beginning," and then he was asleep.


	3. Into the Woods

_Chapter 3: Into the Woods!_

The next morning found the tenth years sitting quietly in the Great Hall. This was it, all there training was used to gauge for this decision. Every thing linked to every novice was portrayed in this decision. It was time to hear the pairings!

Each group would have 3 guys, and 3 girls, and each group would be perfectly tailored to work perfectly. There were no changes, your partners were your partners, and even if you couldn't stand them, they were your family for the next 2 weeks.

"Over the past 4 months," the Women in black, (the western headmaster) began, "each of your teachers has been tirelessly looking over the full records of students from the other schools. We have been working tirelessly to make sure each one of you will survive to pass this test. These teams are permanent, so you had better get to like your teammates."

"Now," began the old scholar, "let us begin our pairings. You will be assigned a name and 5 teammates, the position of leader will be voted upon by the whole team."

The headmasters began to name off the teams. After 2 hours of the pairings, there where 5 teams left. Corkk was pretty sure about part of his team, considering that Colin and Friiy had not been picked.

"Next team will be called Springtime of Winter," called out the western lady, "and the members are thus: Colin Varden, Friiy Tsungyen, and Corkk Ramirez for the boys."

"Hell yeah," thought Corkk, "the demon squad is all together."

"The women of the team will be Tsukasa Aito, Anya Karlov, and Claire Dupont."

Corkk had no idea who they where but he didn't care, the demon squad would tear this course up.

After they named the last few teams, the headmasters dismissed the students to get their packs and weapons. With a harsh reminder to be at their respective starting points in an hour, or else risk failing.

Now, Corkk is your average nineteen year old male, so he had not packed at all last night. So he spent almost the whole hour packing, but still got to the starting point early. There was an old priest waiting there to warp them to their spot in the hundred mile square course.

While they waited for their female counterparts, the guys did what they always do, screw around. Colin was shooting leaves off the tree next to them, while Friiy was alternating between freezing and thawing a puddle on the ground. Corkk on the other hand, was sharpening his blades. He started with his spear, since it was the easiest to sharpen, and worked his way through, sharpening his knife, sword, axe, and the points of his mace. As he finished polishing his armor, the girls arrived.

The first thing out of the mouths of both groups was, "YOU!"

It was the same girls that they had "escorted" to the guest cabins, and there in the front, slightly red in the face was the girl that Corkk had gotten so pissed at the previous day. Now, Corkk being still very naïve, wasn't sure why she was blushing. In his mind there were only two possibilities, 1. She was mad at him and wanted to kill him, or 2. She was embarrassed that she had said such awful things, (didn't I just tell you he was naïve?) but couldn't get the strength to apologize.

He didn't really care though. She was wearing skin tight chain mail, and some well crafted plate-mail, which showed her feminine curves very well, but being as ignorant as Corkk was, he noticed these things, but was too distracted by drooling over the plate-mail, which was twice as good as his own armor. She two carried a spear, a hunting knife (not the fighting kind that Corkk wore, but the kind for cleaning kills) and a scimitar. She, also just like him, had her belongings in a bag tied at the end of her spear.

Colin was carrying his bow and a carving knife, to make new arrows, a quiver of 50 arrows, and his good spiked boots, to use for climbing trees. Other than that, he carried a pack to carry supplies as they moved around the course, and a tarp for making a shelter.

Friiy on the other hand, carried with him, his staff, carved out of the wood of the mystical tree Yggdrasil, and a sharp ritualistic dagger made out of an unknown metal, which he called a Damascus. In his pack he carried graphing tools, to help them map the course as they went along.

The Curly brown haired girl was dressed in camouflage, and had on special boots designed specifically for the forest, that made practically no noise no matter where you stepped. She had a pair of Combat daggers on a belt around her waist. She carried a pack for supplies also.

And finally, the short red head, hade a nice mace strapped to her belt, and was wearing a belt with a number of pouches used to hold medicinal herbs.

While the others conversed, Corkk and The blonde one, which he soon figured out was named Tsukasa, though her friends called her Kasa, traded insults. When the priest finally received the orders to warp them to their starting point, it was already beginning to get dark.

The old man wished them luck, and then muttered something under his breath. A Spinning circle of light appeared on the ground, and they all stepped in it, ready to begin the test. They felt the familiar lurch as they where wrenched between two dimensions.

Suddenly, they where falling. Before they had time to even let out a yelp, they where in a heap, with an unhappy Corkk on the bottom.

After they untangled themselves, they surveyed their surroundings. They were in a large clearing, with a stream running through the center, there was a giant boulder with a huge overhang to their right, and dense forest surrounding them. In the gathering darkness, they decided to stay here for the night. So they set up their camp under the overhang, and pulled straws to see who got which watch.

You can't afford to sleep unwatched in an unfamiliar territory, was the first thing that had been taught those many years ago when they had joined the academies. There were nasty things that crawled around in the woods at night, and the professors, never set up any wards to keep the strongest away, preferring to let the youngsters fight for their life if they had to.

Lady luck seemed to really hate Corkk that night, he had drawn the exact wrong straw, and had to do, both the first, and the last watches. So, when he got to sleep in between his watches, he was very grateful.

Thus ended their first day in the woods.


	4. From Bad to Not so Bad

_Chapter 4: From Bad to Not so Bad!_

When the sun came up, Corkk was more relaxed than ever. The night had gone off without a hitch, and he had spent the last hour, relaxing in a small lake at the end of the clearing. He had taken this opportunity to use his knife to shave the stubble off his chin, leaving him clean shaven and feeling clean. As he was sitting on the top of the boulders overhang, he waited for Colin to wake up. He heard steps behind him, expecting Colin to be sauntering up to talk to him; he turned around, a goofy grin on his face. He stopped cold.

It was not Colin who was behind him, it was Kasa. Great, he thought, time for another argument about how pigheaded men are, when will this woman leave me alone?

Her words left him more startled than he could have ever expected.

"I need a sparring partner, and Friiy over there has said good things about you." She said, her voice feminine yet firm at the same time.

"You don't want to spar me, you wouldn't have a chance," he muttered, his voice filled with confidence.

"I don't know about that," she replied, a weird gleam in her eyes.

"Whatever," he smirked, "pick your weapon. As for me, I will use my sword, and shield."

"Sounds like a good plan, I think I'll do the same," was her only reply.

They both, whispered an age old charm. This would cause their normally deadly blades to become, in a sense, guarded, meaning that they would not cut or stab.

They took their places; he adopted a defensive stance, intending to figure out just how good this chick really was. With breathtaking speed she lunged forward, in a complex maneuver intending to finish this in one hit. Corkk however had seen, and used this technique before, and knew exactly how to counter it. He stepped to the side, out of the way of her thrust and leaped in closer to her. He aimed a wickedly fast swipe at her head, and was shocked, when she pulled her shield up just in time to block the attack. She thrust her shield foreword, delivering a dizzying blow designed to addle the opponent. Corkk however had a thick skull, and was able to take the hit, countered with his own shield, a hard thrust into her side, which she took, in mid stride.

The duel went on, neither side gaining the upper hand. The others woke up, to find them breathlessly locked together, parrying and stabbing, and supporting each other with their shields.

Finally the others pulled them apart, telling them that they should have never started that fight in the first place, and they were obviously evenly matched.

After a fight like that, both of the combatants where able to forget their perfect records and Corkk couldn't help but become attracted to the young blonde. That was how the first four days went, Corkk and Kasa fighting till near exhaustion, then getting healed by the acolyte, whose name was Claire.

All the while they gathered food, getting ready to move toward the exit of the course, which would take them a week to reach.

During this time each person was assigned a job to do for the party. Friiy with his potent fire spells, was assigned the job of lighting the fires, and also was entrusted with the position of cartographer. The thief, Anya, was placed with Colin, and they were both tasked with collecting food, and scouting the countryside. They would come back chatting merrily about some beast they had killed or narrowly escaped, and it was readily apparent to everyone, except naïve little Corkk, that they thoroughly enjoyed each others company. (Could this be a possible Romance? Maybe!)

Claire was tasked with the job of cooking, after all the others proved that the best thing they could cook was burned ashes, and spent a lot of the day chatting with Friiy about the arcane arts. (Another pairing, Yay, that makes three.)

Meanwhile because of an exact tie, Corkk and Kasa where deemed the leaders. Slowly they grew closer, though they never let anyone else know.

Then one day, while they where hiking, they where ambushed. Apparently, one of the other groups was not as skilled as they and had resorted to ambushing others, as the main source of food.

If it hadn't been for Colin's sharp hearing, the arrows, tipped with a special sleeping potion, would have incapacitated the whole group.

With almost inhuman speed, he snatched four of the arrows out of the air. The last two, bounced harmlessly of the armor of the two swordsmen. As quick as the lightning he summoned, Friiy struck down the three archers. He hit each with a single lightning bolt, not enough to kill the aggressors, but enough to knock them out. Before the rest of the ambushers could move, they where knocked out cold, two of them had taken the butts of spears in the back of the head, leaving them with nothing to expect, but a headache when they woke. The last one was taken out by Anya, who skillfully pegged him in the temple with a large flat rock.

Not able to resist themselves, they tied the would be ambushers up and hung them from a branch of a large tree, so that they where just out of reach of the ground.

Suddenly for seemingly no reason at all, Kasa collapsed! Corkk was there almost before she fell, and managed to prevent her from hitting her head on a nasty rock. Turning her over, he saw that the arrow had not been deflected as easily as they had thought, and had in fact cut her just enough to get the potion into her blood.

With Claire still at camp, there was nothing for the group to do but carry her back, so Corkk picked her up cradling her like one would cradle a baby, and carried her back, unaware of the strange looks, and snickers coming from the other two, who must have thought that it was hilarious that these two, who had fought continuously until two days ago, could even possibly ever be together.

Finally the day came when they had to start to head toward the gate, which Colin and Anya had found and helped Friiy map the for the past 3 days.

With an air of sadness, they left behind the place that they had called home for the past 5 days.

And so, they began their 6 day trek to the gate, while in the distance, the teachers, with the help of potent magic, watched them the whole way.


End file.
